LENR & Cold Fusion News
Cold Fusion Energy & LENR News
Rossi Plans Small Reactor
Andrea Rossi is apparently planning to unveil a new smaller version of his e-cat low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) device. As usual Rossi s is not revealing much about the device which he called the E-Cat X/QuarkX.
He did make this statement in a March 20 blog post: “The Hot Cat is evolved into the E-Cat QuarkX. So far. F8, F9.” That seems to indicate that the QuarkX is actually simply the latest version of the hot e-cat technology Rossi and his team have been working on for a long time.
Above is concept art of what e-cat might look like created by Daniel Badoul courtesy ecat.com.
One possibility might be that QuarkX is simply the commercial version of the E-Cat X, which is presumably the 10th version of e-cat that Rossi has built. “EcatX is evolved into QuarkX. Is the same thing, evolved.”
A few Important Energy Stories that You Need to See
There have been a few important developments in the world of energy that everybody needs to be aware of. The energy industry has become more unstable than ever even without the appearance of disruptive technologies like low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) and it looks like it is about to get worse.
Construction of Elon Musk's Gigafactory is well under way.
The biggest story is that the collapse in oil prices is destabilizing many countries including Russia and Venezuela. News stories indicate that super market shelves in Venezuela are empty because the government cannot pay for food imports and that nation’s president is frantically traveling around the world begging for loans and foreign aid to keep his country’s economy functioning. Venezuela’s economy is totally dependent on oil exports, take away the oil exports and the result is depression.
Some economists are now worried that the fall in oil prices will lead to deflation. Deflation is an economic condition that occurs when prices keep falling and falling. In deflation producers and sellers get less for the products and have less to spend. Deflation can be devastating, it was one of the main causes of the Great Depression.
An Exciting Time for LENR
It is a rather interesting and very exciting time for low energy nuclear reaction (LENR). Perhaps the most exciting developments are the attempts to replicate and perhaps improve upon Andrea Rossi’s Lugarno demonstration of his ecat technology.
Jack Cole who is described as a hobbyist reported that he has succeeded in achieving some sort of reaction with a mixture of nickel, hydrogen and a special lime based ceramic powder, the LENR-Coldfusion.com website reported. Cole reported that his experiment created 10.6 watts of excess heat. Cole was hoping to produce LENR without the use of lithium a volatile and potentially flammable substance.
This is supposed to be a picture of Jack Cole's latest low energy nuclear reaction.
Like Alexander Parkhomov Cole was apparently trying to replicate Rossi’s Lugarno experiment. Unfortunately I don’t know that much more about Cole or his efforts.
The Martin Fleischmann Memorial Project is attempting to do much the same thing with their Project Dog Bone. Updates about that effort are regularly posted on the Project’s Facebook page.
How a Technology Develops
The best way to predict how the commercialization and adoption of low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) could occur is to examine how other technologies were adopted in the past. Then to identify the patterns by which they were adopted it. In other words we need to take a look at history.
Thomas Edison an inventor who changed history.
History does not exactly repeat itself but it often operates in similar patterns. These patterns sometimes produce different results but they are similar. A pattern for technological development, commercialization and adoption based on past technological progress can be discerned. Here are the highlights of such a pattern:
2014: The Year in Cold Fusion
2014 turned out to be a really exciting year in low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) or cold fusion even if we didn’t get the breakthrough we wanted. The field made progress and took some surprising twists and turns.
The biggest and most important LENR story of the year had to be the entry of the American private equity firm Cherokee Partners into the cold fusion area. Cherokee purchased the rights to Andrea Rossi’s e-cat LENR device for $11 million and set up a company called Industrial Heat LLC to manage it.
This story is important because it shows that serious investors are interested in LENR and willing to put money into it. Hopefully many other investors will follow Cherokee’s Tom Darden into the field.
So far Industrial Heat has not unveiled a practical LENR device yet but it does seem to be laying a good ground work for commercialization. Hopefully they’ll unveil something in 2015.
Energy Glut is changing the World
The world is facing something that most of us would have thought impossible just a few years ago – an energy glut. That will have big implications for cutting edge power sources such as Low Energy Nuclear Reaction or LENR as well as the established energy conglomerates.
One impact you’re probably already seeing is at your local gas station. Various sources are reporting that regular unleaded gasoline is now selling for under $2 a gallon around or around 66¢ a liter in some parts of the American Midwest. This is driving up US retail sales, the wholesale club Costco, now America’s second largest retailer; reported that its sales increased by 7% in November.
This is sure to fuel economic growth in the United States and countries that sell to the USA such as China. It’s also sure to hurt countries that depend on oil imports such as Russia where the Ruble is collapsing and Venezuela. One side effect of falling oil prices is that Venezuela can no longer afford to support the Castro brothers’ revolutionary fantasy in Cuba. The Venezuelans were propping up Cuba with their oil money but now they are broke.
A Few Energy News Stories You Probably Missed
There’s a lot of energy news going on out there much of which is not being covered by the mainstream media. Low energy nuclear reaction or LENR is simply the tip of the iceberg when it comes to big energy news going on these days.
Some huge energy stories you have probably missed include:
- Bill Gates the world’s richest guy and the man behind Microsoft is interested in LENR or cold fusion. Press releases and news stories indicate that Mr. Gates visited the Italian Agency for New Technologies or ENEA in Frascati, Italy, examine LENR experiments being conducted there.
The Toyota Mirai, fuel cell cars are almost in your driveway.
- Both Toyota and Honda are playing to market fuel cell powered cars in the United States and Japan. Honda’s FCX clarity fuel cell car will reportedly generate enough electricity to power your house for a week. Toyota’s Mirai will reportedly have similar capabilities. The Honda version will even be marketed with a power exporter device designed to power homes or businesses. Both vehicles are powered by electricity created with a hydrogen powered fuel cell and the emissions they put out is a thin cloud of water vapor.
Industrial Heat Plans Commercial Ecat Test Natural Gas Fired Ecat Explained
Industrial Heat LLC is conducting a one year test of Andrea Rossi’s ecat low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) technology. The test is apparently designed to test ecat’s utility as a commercially viable energy source.
Natural Gas could be the energy source for Ecat
North Carolina based Industrial Heat is the Cherokee Partners Funded venture that paid $11 million for the rights to ecat in January 2014. If successful the test could be the most important demonstration of LENR yet. Unfortunately Rossi gave no verification of these claims. Rossi announced the test on his blog in the following post:
Andrea Rossi
November 16th, 2014 at 11:54 AM
Dr Joseph Fine:
We will publish a report of the 1 MW plant used by the Customer of IH for his industrial purposes after 1 year of regular operation, when we will be able to give evidence ( if so) of the real profitability of the technology, Beyond the laboratory tests: this is the obvious next step of our evolution.
Climate Change: LENR could be our Last Best Hope
A major technological innovation such as low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) or cold fusion might be the world’s only chance of avoiding catastrophic climate change caused by global warming. That’s the unwritten conclusion of the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest disturbing report.
“Science has spoken” UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said of the report. “There is no ambiguity in their message. Leaders must act. Time is not on our side.”
Some of the disturbing details contained in that report include:
- Emissions of greenhouse gases created by burning fossil fuels rose to an all-time high in 2013. The amount of gases increased by 2.3% to set a new record.
- 95% of scientists surveyed agreed that human beings were behind the warming. I cannot think of anything else that 95% scientists would agree upon.
- 2014 could be the hottest year on record according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Lockheed-Martin’s Compact Fusion and E-cat Not Rivals or Competitors
Andrea Rossi’s E-cat is not the only experimental fusion technology making news. The giant American defense contractor and aerospace company Lockheed-Martin (NYSE: LMT) has come out of the closet and admitted that it is working on a compact hot fusion device.
Skunk Works engineers working on compact hot fusion courtesy Lockheed-Martin.
The interesting thing is that Rossi’s e-cat low energy nuclear reaction (LENR) or cold fusion device and Lockheed-Martin’s technology could easily coexist. The two technologies seem to have very different purposes and potentials.
Lockheed-Martin’s website indicates that a team at its Skunk Works the secret research and development facility that created such iconic aircraft as the Stealth Bomber and the SR-Blackbird spy plane is trying to develop a large scale power source. It mentions a reactor about the size of a cargo container that would generate around 100 megawatts of electricity or enough to power a city of 100,000 people.